San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-10-22

citizens, it is doubtful IL any Of them are one
half so curious ns what citizens might see in
one home of the linemen, little eight by
twelve Granny between the operating room
and the sixth floor Of the Western Union
building From its single small window the
view is through a mass Of wires down upon
the red roof OF ST. Paul's. The smoky haze
Of the roofs and the roar Of the street creep
up from far below In vague quavers Of sight
and sound. The air is heavy with the odor
Of the rubber insulation which covers the
wires. Three or four broken backed chairs,
prudently fastened TO the walls with loops Of
wire to prevent their being carried off TO
some other department, are all the furniture
The room is dark and dingy
Every wire that enters the building must
pass through this room before it can get TO
the operating room overhead. Lying in ir-
regular clusters and tangled masses, mex
tricable and only TO be traced out separately
by patient eXpertness, they form the wall
and ceiling of the room. Hundreds Of little
inch square cardboard tags, hung from them,
flutter like snow white aspen leaves on
tangled black twigs In the breeze that comes
through the narrow window. Through the
door at one end can be seen glass Jars, six
inches wide and eight high, filled with green
liquid, 10000 Of them stacked tier on tier in
wooden racks, with narrow alleys running
between. An opening at the other end Of
the room admits the sound Of the dynamos, a
sound that Is almost silence in the ceaseless,
low, unvarying monotone. Punctuating it
all Is the regular silver tinkle of the little
bell on the staircase outside that strikes of
the seconds year in and year out, marking
true time for half the country.
Engineer Brown, who sits among dynamo
machines in the greasy blouse and overalls of
a laborer and talks about ohms, volts, am
pheres, and other strange electrical things
with the ease and vivacity of man of science,
says that for seven years that dull whir of
the dynamos has never ceased. There are
three gangs of five machines each. Two gangs
are always running. If one breaks down the
third gang is started in its place, but never
for moment since they first started have
they paused or rested in their work of grinding
out electricity. They take the place of IS, 900
of the Jars. So many would cover an acre Of
ground, even stacked up five or six deep, as
are the 10000 jars still retained to work
the New York city circuits new plant of
larger machines is now being placed in the
basement of the building. When they are
first and last time, and the new ones will
begin what will come as near to perpetual
motion as anything yet devised, for moth
ing but an earthquake or similar cataclysm
will stop them, until they, too, prove too
small, and have to give place to still larger
ones
Foreman Brown, who presdes in the line
mems aerie, and can pick out at moments
notice any one of the 1 200 wires that are
tangled up in the odorous rnbbery masses on
the walls and ceiling Of the room, says that
only fourteen men are now required to look
after the Western Union wires in the city.
This Is because the wires instead of being
stretched on the poles singly, are being
punched into cables of nineteen EACH and run
thus over the poles or In conduits under
ground By fall, he says, all the Western
Union wires in the city will be cabled Sew
eral Of these cables are attached to the ele-
waited railroad structures, and others run
underground, so that, so far as the Western
Union is concerned, the overhead wires will
be nearly gone. As to underground wires,
Mr.. Brown says that the company has not
yet been able to find a system that will pre-
serve the cables on an average, longer than
one year. After that they have to be re-
placed with new.-New York san.